


dive right in

by TsingaDark



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: (Not a lot), Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Meetings, M/M, Non-Consensual Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 01:13:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11093811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsingaDark/pseuds/TsingaDark
Summary: Phil's in the library, trying to study, but there's a guy who keeps harassing him. Thankfully, there are still other cute guys who are willing to help in a moment of distress, with free coffee and a sense of respect for personal space.





	dive right in

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shamrock_girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shamrock_girl/gifts).



> I dedicate this to my girlfriend bc she wanted me to write this :D
> 
> also, many thanks to [acespacedweller](https://www.acespacedweller.tumblr.com/) for reading over this for mistakes :)

Usually, Phil quite liked libraries. They were a quiet and calm opposite to his dorm room, where one of his flatmates was always around, distracting Phil from studying just by their sheer presence. That’s why he always, without fail, went to the library whenever there was an upcoming test. He’d made the mistake of convincing himself that what he got done at the dorm was enough, but evidently, after almost failing a few of his first tests, he’d realised that really wasn’t the case.

Hence why he was now sitting in the library, reading a text for one of his classes or, well,  _ trying _ to anyway. He couldn’t for the life of him concentrate on the words in front of him. His gaze kept drifting to the guy two tables away, and not because he was attractive or because Phil was interested in him, no, it was because the guy wouldn’t stop  _ staring _ at Phil. Every single time Phil glanced up, the guy was already looking at him. And not even in a nice way; he was practically undressing Phil with his eyes. It made him  _ very _ uncomfortable and quite unable to focus on his text. 

He shifted in his seat, trying to subtly turn away a bit. But instead of the desired effect – namely the guy being able to take the fucking hint and stop looking – the complete opposite happened. Suddenly, the guy looked even more interested and he raised a suggestive eyebrow when he caught Phil glancing at him again. Maybe he thought that Phil was playing hard to get or something? Either way, Phil should probably stop looking over there and just concentrate on what he came here to do and hopefully that would also finally signalise to the guy that he really wasn’t interested at all. 

For a while, Phil’s plan worked quite well. Apart from the fact that it took him about five minutes to understand the first sentence after having read it about twenty times already. But at least he was making progress at all, so he counted it as a win. 

Just as he’d all but forgotten about the guy staring at him, he was startled so badly out of his studying-bubble by someone sitting down in the seat next to him that he dropped his pen, which, as if in slow motion, rolled down his notepad and onto the floor. The guy who’d been staring at him the entire time Phil had been in the library picked it up and held it out to him.

“I think you dropped this,” he drawled with a deep voice. It sent shivers down Phil’s spine and he had to suppress the urge to move backwards with his seat. 

“Uh, thanks.” He quickly grabbed the pen, fully intending to just drop it onto his sheet of notes – which, to be perfectly honest, didn’t have a lot of notes on it – but to his surprise the guy didn’t let go. Instead, he used Phil’s momentary confusing to pull the pen closer to him, and with it, Phil’s arm. Phil followed automatically, only realising what had happened when he stared into a pair of very close and very green eyes. 

“Um,” he said dumbfounded, completely at a loss of what to do. Surely this wasn’t happening, was it?

“I think I deserve a little reward for picking it up for you, don’t I?” the guy breathed onto his face and Phil couldn’t help but grimace. The close proximity made him more than uncomfortable but for some reason he felt himself unable to move away. 

“I, uh,” he stammered. He was pretty sure that his discomfort was more than obvious on his face but the guy probably took it as a sign of Phil playing coy, which seemed to spur him on even more. 

“I don’t,” Phil tried again. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say, just that he didn’t  _ want this _ . 

“You don’t have to play shy with me,” the guy said, his voice dipping even lower and confirming Phil’s suspicion. “I know you want me.”

_ What _ ? When had Phil done anything to even suggest that? He finally found the strength to move away but as soon as he leant back a bit, the guy’s fingers were creeping up his thigh and Phil felt paralysed. He was distinctly aware that he was holding his breath, not daring to breathe in fear of encouraging the guy even more. 

“You’re very pretty, you know that?” the guy breathed onto his face and Phil felt the sudden need to vomit. When the guy’s fingers slowly creeped up higher, Phil jerked away, putting as much distance between them as possible on the small library chairs. 

“ _ No _ ,” he forced out, but of course the guy took it as an answer to his question and not as the rejection it was.

“Well, you are,” he drawled, his hand on Phil's thigh again. His green eyes were still intently staring at Phil’s face, and it felt like he was able to see everything apart from how uncomfortable Phil actually felt.

When the guy’s face came closer again, Phil turned his head away, not only because he couldn’t bear looking at him any longer but also because he was hoping that he would catch someone’s eye and they would come and help. Of course, when he let his gaze sweep over the other tables, barely anyone was there and those people were intently looking at their books or laptops, not paying any attention to what was going on around them. It was like no one had the least notion of what was even happening.

“Please,” Phil said as he looked back at the guy, who’d come closer still. “Don’t.”

It seemed like his words didn’t even reach the guy, but Phil also didn’t want to make a scene in the library by being loud, and he still hoped the guy would just take the fucking hint and leave him alone. Apparently though, that was not the case as his grip on Phil’s thigh tightened. 

“Maybe we should–”

“Hey babe,” a voice from behind Phil suddenly cut the guy off. Grateful for the interruption, Phil turned around, only to be met with soft brown eyes and the dimpling smile of another guy having sat down in the other seat next to him. “I got you the coffee you wanted,” he said, holding out a Starbucks cup.

Phil could only stare at him in confusion, until the brown-eyed guy wiggled the cup of coffee in front of him. Phil automatically took hold of it, not quite sure what was happening but glad that it involved free coffee. He took a sip of the coffee – caramel macchiato if he guessed correctly – to calm his nerves. 

The hand that had previously been on his thigh slinked away as Phil felt the arm of Free Coffee Guy curl around the back of his chair, not touching Phil but clearly making a statement. Phil took a deep breath. Apparently he now had a pretend boyfriend who was nice enough to respect his personal space and not touch him and for that Phil was intensely grateful. 

“Thank you,” he breathed, not referring to the coffee, and turned around again, only to find that the other guy was looking extremely pissed off.

“Who are you?” he spat, glaring at Free Coffee Guy over Phil’s shoulder. It gave Phil the feeling that he was some sort of object that the guy wanted to own. 

“I’m his boyfriend, you asshole,” Free Coffee Guy snarled, his voice sounding completely different to when he’d addressed Phil and still Phil felt safer with him than the other guy. “And I suggest you fuck off now.”

To Phil’s surprise, the guy finally left his personal space, moving away as he stood up and forcefully shoved the chair back under the table. The loud sound of metal scraping over the uncarpeted floor made a few people turn their heads and look over. Despite Free Coffee Guy’s presence, Phil wished that would’ve happened earlier.

The guy’s face had become red – from embarrassment or anger, Phil didn’t know – and he looked like he wanted to hurl insults at them with the way his mouth opened and then closed again, but then he just turned around and stalked away.

“That was easy,” Free Coffee Guy remarked, his eyes following the other guy leaving the library.

“Thank you,” Phil breathed, just as Free Coffee Guy removed his arm from behind Phil. He smiled at Phil again, making his dimples reappear. 

Phil shakily smiled back, still feeling out of sorts because of what had happened. If he’d known his morning would pan out like this, he never would’ve set foot outside.

“I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable?” Free Coffee Guy said, his voice turning concerned. “You seemed like you needed a bit of help but I hope I didn’t overstep any boundaries?”

“No, you’re fine, it’s fine,” Phil babbled, not quite able to get across how grateful he actually was. He’d saved him just as it had gotten even worse. “He wouldn’t leave me alone and kept, um, touching me.”

“Fucking asshole,” Free Coffee Guy said angrily, his smile dimming. 

“Sorry,” he added sheepishly, “I have a habit of swearing.”

“That’s fine,” Phil laughed, causing Free Coffee Guy’s dimples to pop again. 

A short moment of silence settled between them, which Phil didn’t know how to break. Despite the incident of inappropriately having been touched – and he still couldn’t quite believe that had actually happened to him – he couldn’t help but be intrigued by Free Coffee Guy. And, to be perfectly honest, he was kind of exactly Phil’s type – brown eyes, soft-looking, curly hair,  _ dimples _ , and a generally warm appearance. The complete opposite to the guy that had harassed him. 

To mask his awkwardness at neither knowing what to say and at having realised how much his ex-pretend-boyfriend was actual boyfriend material, Phil took another sip of his coffee or, well, Free Coffee Guy’s coffee to be exact. 

“Oh, do you want your coffee back?” Phil asked, suddenly realising that Free Coffee Guy probably hadn’t expected Phil to actually drink his coffee. At the same time though, Phil also kind of hoped he would say no and give Phil an opportunity to ask him out for coffee. 

“Ah, no, keep it. I was gonna do some work but let’s be real, I probably won’t anyway, so I can just go back and get another one.” He shrugged.

“I feel bad though,” Phil said, glancing at the massive cup in his hand. Knowing Starbucks prices, it had probably cost a small fortune. “Maybe I could buy you one?” 

Free Coffee Guy instantly smiled at that. “I’d love that,” he said softly, his brown eyes lighting up. 

“Okay.” Phil couldn’t supress the smile that overtook his face. Free Coffee Guy was incredibly cute and he seemed to want to spend some time with Phil, which, to be honest, wasn’t a combination that Phil happened to come across often. 

“Now?” Free Coffee Guy suddenly asked, pulling Phil from his thoughts. A second later, he blushed, seemingly embarrassed at how eager he came across. 

“ _ Yes _ ,” Phil quickly replied. If his face feeling warm was anything to go by, he was probably blushing as well. He couldn’t help it though, he’d never been good with people showing interest in him. 

Free Coffee Guy stood up, shouldering his backpack. “Let’s go then,” he laughed, when Phil simply looked up at him, frozen in place. 

Quickly, and very much uncoordinated, Phil got up as well and started shoving his things into his bag. There was a short moment when he stopped – pen in his hand, ready to be dropped into the void of his bag where it would probably never be seen again – and thought back to the hand on his thigh, but then he risked a short glance at Free Coffee Guy, whose gaze was trained on his phone, and without further thought, Phil packed up the rest of his things. There was enough time later to reflect on what had happened, now he wanted to enjoy the moment.

They made their way out of the library and towards the other end of the campus – honestly,  this university was like a small town in itself – the warm sun a constant companion. 

“Oh, I never even asked your name,” Free Coffee Guy suddenly exclaimed. 

“Uh, Phil. I’m Phil.”

“Nice to meet you, Phil,” Free Coffee Guy cheekily replied. “I’m Dan, pretend boyfriend at day, uni student at night.”

Phil laughed. “Those two aren’t exclusive, y’know.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Dan – that name definitely suited him better than Free Coffee Guy – replied, winking at him and immediately after grimaced. “Sorry,” he laughed awkwardly. “I tend to do that. Dunno why.”

“That’s alright.” Phil grinned at him. “It looks good in a I’m-having-a-stroke kind of way.”

Dan barked out a laugh at that. “Wow, thanks. That’s probably the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.” 

“That’s because I’m the best compliment giver,” Phil joked – he really wasn’t.  _ Awkward compliment giver _ would probably have been a better description. 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Dan’s big hands pulled at the straps of his backpack, it’s black colour seemingly Dan’s favourite choice for everything he wore, from his shoes with zips – and who the hell wore zips on their shoes? – his skinny jeans to his t-shirt. And still, despite his attire and his height – he was probably even taller than Phil, which was a feat in itself – he didn’t seem intimidating. Phil briefly wondered what it was about Dan that made him feel safe, but then Dan turned to look at him, his brown eyes sparkling in the sun – or maybe that was the sun blinding Phil – and his curls wiping with every step, and Phil understood. Dan radiated warmth, not only with the way he spoke but also with his eyes and expression. 

Really, Phil was halfway to getting a crush on him and he’d only just learnt his name. It was quite ridiculous and also a bit backwards, considering Dan had been his pretend boyfriend before he’d even gotten to know him. But maybe, if Phil was extremely lucky, Dan would become something more to Phil some day. 

That was something he didn’t want to think about at that moment though. He knew all too well how crushed hopes and expectations felt like and it was not something he particularly liked. Right now, all he wanted to focus on was enjoying the time he had with Dan as much as he was able to. Even if it turned out to only be one coffee date.

“You alright?” Dan suddenly asked, his brows furrowed a bit. He’d slowed down, to be able to look at Phil properly.

“More than fine,” Phil replied and the answering smile from Dan was enough to make hope bloom in his chest anyway. 

When their shoulders bumped as they tried to simultaneously get through the entrance of the coffee shop at the same time, they both had to stifle a laugh, and it was at that moment that Phil was glad he’d gone to the library that day, despite what had happened, because otherwise he probably never would’ve met Dan. 


End file.
